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10 year old Charlotte May sent us this
description of her visit to The Gambia:
My family and I went on holiday to the
Gambia. We were lucky enough to bump into Pippa and Ian, the leaders
of Pageant. They were kind enough to take us to a nursery school.
The children were lovely, and very eager to learn, the school was
completely different to the ones we have here in England. It was
made up of one small building used as a classroom, it simply had a
black board at the front, chairs and desks, with an extra table to
store things on. It was just a plain classroom but the children were
so happy, they sang songs and we played colour games. The nursery
also had a toilet block and they were in the process of building a
kitchen, so the children could cook too.
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To my surprise all the children in the
school were wearing a uniform, as you can see in the picture it
was green with the school emblem on it. We also gave the
children some exercise books, pens and pencils, they were
delighted. All the children seemed to like each other and get
along well, which does help when you are at school. They were
all learning really well, all of them could count to 60 or 70
and they also knew the alphabet. We taught them some songs they
picked them up easily and then they sang us some songs they
already knew. Another gift we took them was a bag of small
plastic balls when we rolled them to each other I got completely
confused! I won't be playing that game again for a while!!!! |
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me and my brother playing with the
children |
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We also visited a
secondary school, it was newly built. We took lots of gifts
like, staplers, pencil sharpeners, books, lots of footballs and
some hula hula hoops. The head teacher loved all the gifts, even
though he couldn't work the pencil sharpener, all the things we
took, we take for granted. We went to visit the children, but
unknown to us the children had been sent home, because of
Ramadan, which is a long period of time when Muslims fast. Then
when they see the new moon they can have a big feast, this is to
make them purer people, similar to our Lent. |
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the secondary school |
The school had lots of classes a library,
staff room and toilets. This particular school had a big football
pitch and a garden where they could grow crops .We also met the
school care taker and three of the teacher's .They had some school
text books that we read. They learn the same sort of things we learn
here.
These children are some of the lucky ones,
because many of the children in Gambia do not go to school. Thanks
to Pageant and all the people who sponsor a child this could change.
If you ever visit the Gambia, then take my advice and spare some
time to go and visit the children in the schools. The look on their
faces to have a visitor makes it so worth while.
IT IS A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE !!!!!!!!!!!
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